Showing papers on "Disadvantaged published in 1983"

How much "opportunity to respond" does the minority disadvantaged student receive in school?

Abstract: Festinger, L. A theory of cognitive dissonance. New York: Harper and Row, 1957. Gillespie, P. A planned change approach to the implementation of the IEP provision of P.L. 94-142. Washington DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, February, 1978. Gilliam, J. E. Contributions and status rankings of educational planning committee participants. Exceptional Children, 1979, 45, 466-468. Gilliam, J. E., & Coleman, M. C. Who influences IEP committee decisions? Exceptional Children, 1981, 47, 642-644. Kane, R. A. The interprofessional team as a small group. Social Work in Health Care, 1975, 1, 1932. Yoshida, R. K., Fenton, K. S., Maxwell, J.P., & Kaufman, M. J. Group decision making in the planning team: Myth or reality? Journal of School Psychology, 1978, 16, 237-244.

Can Ethnographic Research Go beyond the Status Quo

Abstract: This article is a slightly revised version of the Past President's Address delivered at the annual business meeting of the Council on Anthropology and Education, Washington, DC, 6 December 1982. ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH; PROGRAM DESIGN; SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT.

Test Bias: in God We Trust; All Others Must Have Data

Abstract: Racial and cultural test bias continues to be a major concern among all professionals involved in the placement and treatment of handicapped children. Though embroiled in social, political, and emotional snarls, the issue must be addressed, professionally, from a primarily empirical standpoint. This paper reviews the research program of the author and several of his colleagues in their attempts to evaluate empirically the merits of the cultural-test-bias hypothesis. There is little evidence to substantiate claims of bias for well-constructed, properly standardized tests. Correspondingly, minority and other disadvantaged children with low academic and aptitude test scores need remedial and special educational help just as much as do their white middle-class counterparts.

Memory Strategy Instruction with the Learning Disabled

Abstract: In any consideration of the various applications of memory strategy instruction in special populations, the learning disabled constitute an especially appropriate target group. Because of an uneven pattern of abilities (i.e., a specific deficit in processing letters, numbers, sounds, or word meanings, while showing normal performance in other intellectual areas), the learning-disabled child experiences repeated failure in the classroom and the learning-disabled adult suffers restricted socioeconomic opportunity. In a culture where universal literacy is expected and universal schooling is required, a person who nevertheless fails to achieve literacy is disadvantaged indeed. Moreover, the learning-disabled population contains an over-representation of minority individuals (Rosner, Abrams, Daniels, & Schiffman, 1981). In the sense that they are multiply disadvantaged, the failure of the American educational system to serve the needs of learning disabled individuals is a serious problem.

Patterns of Assistance among Parents and the Childless in Very Old Age

Abstract: This research examined patterns of assistance among very old parents and childless persons and considered the relationship between receiving help and a measure of well-being. Analysis of interviews with 551 older men and women indicated that parental status was less important than marital status in determining whether individuals received help from others in tasks of daily living. It was concluded that the childless relative to parents were not greatly disadvantaged in obtaining assistance or in their evaluations of life.

School Determinants of Student Achievement in Secondary Education

Abstract: Relationships were examined between student achievement (output), teachers’ length of tenure, level of fiscal resources, and level of disadvantaged students. The school was used as the unit of analysis. Teachers’ length of tenure was found to be a positive and direct predictor of the output. The level of fiscal resources was found to be a negative and direct predictor, but also a positive and indirect predictor through teachers’ length of tenure. The level of disadvantaged students was found to be a positive predictor through fiscal resources and teachers’ tenure separately, and a negative predictor through each of the two inputs separately. Implications for further research are suggested on the basis of these findings.

Scarce Resources for Retirement Planning

Abstract: The need for pre-retirement planning for women is of growing concern today. Little is known about female professional workers and the problems they experience with pre-retirement planning. This study surveyed 218 professional women regarding their retirement plans and compared their responses to those of 239 professional men. The study focused on several issues: (a) what resources are available to professional women as compared to professional men for pre-retirement planning; (b) how gender is related to financial planning among professional workers; and (c) how gender is related to expectations about retirement income. In general, women were found to be disadvantaged, and strategies to meet their pre-retirement needs were suggested.

Learning from experience : evaluating early childhood demonstration programs

Abstract: 1 Front Matter 2 Part 1: Report of the Panel 3 Evaluating Early Childhood Demonstration Programs 4 Part 2: Papers 5 The Health Impact of Early Childhood Programs: Perspectives from the Brookline Early Education Project 6 Measuring the Outcomes of Day Care 7 Informing Policy Makers About Programs for Handicapped Children 8 Preschool Education for Disadvantaged Children 9 Comprehensive Family Service Programs: Spal Features and Associated Measurement Problems 10 The Evaluation Report: A Weak Link to Policy

Structural Sources of Unequal Responsiveness to Group Demands in American Cities

Abstract: RECENTLY we introduced the concept of responsiveness bias in order to contribute to two major developments in urban political research (Schumaker and Getter, 1977). First is the literature concerned with political (or policy) responsiveness (see, for example, Eulau and Prewitt, 1973; 424-62; Verba and Nie, 1972: 299-343; Lineberry and Fowler, 1967; Karnig, 1975; Zeigler and Tucker, 1978; Getter and Schumaker, 1978; and Clark and Ferguson, 1981). The central questions addressed in this research concern the extent to which policy decisions by municipal officials are consistent with various demand imputs from citizens and groups. Second, is the literature concerning the extent of equality achieved in the distribution of urban services and outcomes (see, for example, Levy, Meltsner, and Wildavsky, 1974; Lineberry, 1978; Mladenka, 1980 and 1981; and Jones, 1981). This research has been principally concerned with discovering the extent to which different neighborhoods receive disproportionately more-or-less specific governmental services than other neighborhoods. The major shortcoming of most previous work on responsiveness has been its failure to consider that policy-makers are often more responsive to the demands of some people than others, thus creating a pattern of unequal (or biased) responsiveness. Concerned with measures of "overall" responsiveness (i.e., the general tendency of policy-makers to be receptive to citizen inputs), previous studies have usually failed to consider how the receptivity of officials varies by the class, racial, ethnic, and neighborhood characteristics of persons or groups making demands. In short, the literature has failed to consider how equally or unequally governments respond to different types of citizens. Meanwhile, previous work on the distribution of municipal services has been flawed by its inability to specify an agreed-upon standard for assessing the extent to which equality in the distribution of city services is achieved. Most scholars seem to suggest that equality implies equal policy benefits (e.g., equal quality and quantity of streets, schools, police protection, etc.) for residents of various neighborhoods, regardless of their class and racial compositions. Yet, it has also been suggested that "equality" is achieved when the distribution of policy benefits to citizens is proportionate (equal) to their contributions. By this standard, if the rich pay more taxes, "equity" demands that they get proportionately more services (Levy, Meltsner, and Wildavsky, 1974: 240). In contrast to this rather conservative conception of equality, it has also been suggested that equality requires "equality of condition after receipt of services" or "output equality" (Lineberry, 1978: 32). Such a standard assumes that relatively disadvantaged people have greater needs than relatively advantaged

Cumulative Deficit in Culturally Disadvantaged Children.

Abstract: Summary. Much of the previous research on the question of whether the course of scholastic learning in culturally disadvantaged children shows a cumulative deficit over time has been inconclusive, but recent analyses of the British National Child Development Study data have provided firmer evidence that it does. In the present study seven scholastic attainment measures were obtained on the same sample of children at ages 11 and 15 years respectively. This sample comprised a group of 46 children from culturally and materially disadvantaged homes in three cities in England and Wales and a matched control group of 46 children from more advantaged, but still predominantly working-class homes. Relative changes in the scholastic attainment of the two groups between the two ages were examined by means of the regression (analysis of covariance) technique. It was found that, in relation to their 11-year scores, the Disadvantaged Group children had lower predicted mean scores at age fifteen than their controls on all of the test measures, but not all of the differences reached statistical significance. Also, in relation to their 7- and 11-year test scores the mean predicted scores of the Disadvantaged Group children on three of the 15 year tests were, non-significantly, lower than those of their controls. Taken in conjunction with the results of a previous analysis of the children's 11- and 7-year test scores, these findings offer some support for the cumulative deficit hypothesis.

A Follow-Up Study of Disadvantaged Children Two Years after Being Tutored.

Abstract: Disadvantaged children in (Grades 7 to II, who had participated 2 years earlier in a tutorial program, were assessed for their location in the school system, their aspirations, school self-concept,...

The Efficiency of the Denver Developmental Screening Test with Rural Disadvantaged Preschool Children

Abstract: Etude longitudinale sur trois ans de l'efficacite du DDST administre a une population d'enfants d'âge prescolaire en milieu rural

The Role of Interest Groups in the Formation of Educational Policy: Past Practice and Future Trends.

Abstract: Interest-group activity ranks among the most visible contributors to policy change in modern industrial societies. American myths, and a good deal of political science literature, suggest not only a high public profile for interest groups but profound policy influence as well (Dahl 1961; Truman 1965). For many sympathetic analysts, interest groups serve not only as reservoirs of pertinent information but, even more, as critical intermediaries between the state and the public. Many critical scholars contend that group activities are so pervasive that they can hardly be distinguished from the activities of agencies, bureaus, legislative committees, and other bodies that exercise formal policymaking authority. In their view, the power of well-organized groups is so extensive that it virtually isolates the policymaking process from other outside influences (McConnell 1966; Lowi 1969). In short, whether groups are praised or blamed, their power is often assumed. Analyses of federal education policy are not excepted from this interpretation. Educational interest groups were blamed for policy stagnation in the 1950s, applauded for their unified, vigorous efforts to maintain federal funding in the early 1970s, credited with a presidential victory in 1976, and hailed (or condemned) for creating a new Department of Education in 1978. They have appeared regularly on the stage where federal education policy is determined, and have expanded in number and membership as federal programs have fragmented and proliferated. Such visibility could conveniently be translated into an assumption that interest groups play an innovative and influential role in the shaping of federal education policy. However, many studies of group influence may confuse high visibility with political muscle. Because interest groups often need to show their members that they “make a difference,” group leaders are anxious to provide glowing accounts of battles fought and wars won. The same events viewed in historical or comparative perspective, however, may reveal that a group, while finding itself on the winning side, did not necessarily contribute significantly to the victory. Indeed, an equally if not more compelling set of counter studies found group influence to be more circumscribed (Bauer, Pool, and Dexter 1972; Wilson 1973). Especially when analyzing the forces introducing new policies, the main focus of this article, one seldom finds organized groups to be the vital

Reward system of psychotherapy: Implication for inequities in service delivery.

Abstract: Research has shown that patients are treated unequally by providers of mental health services. This study is designed to investigate why this is so. Providers who treat "advantaged," as opposed to "disadvantaged," patients are more likely to be rewarded by their colleagues. Thus, core features of the occupational reward system constrain psychotherapists to be less than enthusiastic about serving disadvantaged patients. This line of reasoning is tested on a nationwide sample of psychotherapists (psychologists) through vignettes describing a therapist and randomly varying the characteristics of his patients. The results show that a therapist is evaluated more positively if treating advantaged patients, thereby supporting the premise that inequities in the delivery of mental health services are directly related to the reward structure in which mental health professionals conduct their activities.

The erosion of the unusual susceptibility defense: The case of the disadvantaged consumer

Abstract: Marketing practitioners and academics have exhibited an increased concern for the problems of disadvantaged consumers in recent years During the same time period, the product liability field has become increasingly volatile In this article the overlap between these two seemingly independent trends is presented via hypothetical case examples A decision process to guide marketers who potentially deal with disadvantaged market segments is outlined and discussed The implications of these developments are also described in detail

A Quotient of Awareness

Abstract: Since the development of psychological assessments of ‘intelligence’ at about the beginning of this century, many groups of people have been tested. By and large, most have performed at lower levels than people of north-western European origin or ancestry, who belong to the culture within which the tests were devised. Among the poor performers, with average IQ’s of 80 to 92, have been people of southern and eastern Europe and Caucasian people from further east (Greeks, Yugoslavs, Iranians, Iraqis, Turks, Indians), tested in their homelands, mostly in large numbers and by compatriots, on ‘standard’ non-verbal or translated tests. These relatively poor performances demonstrate the extent of cultural learning of a particular type involved in most cognitive tests. Presumably, north-western European cultural learning is required for good performances on tests coming from this cultural background, so that children from different backgrounds, even those from other areas of Europe, are likely to be disadvantaged. Children from more widely different backgrounds, such as those from hunting and gathering groups, can be expected to be disadvantaged even further. Nevertheless, hunting and gathering people have been tested on Western-type tests, and poor performances interpreted as indicating inferior ability. Kalahari ‘bushmen’ people in the 1930s were assigned a mean mental age of 7.5 by Porteus as a result of their performance on his Maze Test. In the same period, Aboriginal people of north-west Australia performed poorly on this test, with ages ranging from 8.22 years to 12.17 years for adults. Aboriginal people have performed poorly, but not invariably so, on other tests.

Early outreach: career awareness for health professions.

Abstract: "Early outreach" may be defined as a long-term, talent-development strategy designed to prepare a well qualified pool of disadvantaged and underrepresented minority applicants for entry into health professions schools, particularly medical schools. The concept of early outreach is to prepare, motivate, and educate talented, economically disadvantaged junior high or secondary school students to gain the necessary academic qualifications to make high school graduation, college attendance, and health careers a reality. In this paper the author defines the problem to which early outreach is addressed and discussed the contextual and historical background of the concept. A number of programs at the Health Sciences Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago designed and implemented to provide a model to achieve the concept of early outreach are described.

Cognitive Impact of the Media: Implications for a Pluralistic Society:

Abstract: The theme of this article is that television (TV) has a democratizing influence in our pluralistic society. The source of this influence is that groups who are disadvantaged in terms of print media and print-oriented schooling are advantaged in terms of access to and attitudes toward TV. Research results indicate that, by and large, various class and ethnic groups are equal in their ability to learn from TV – whose power as a teaching tool is discussed in relation to transmission of school-oriented concepts like letters and numbers, story content, and beliefs about society. The potential value of TV in the schools – not to replace print, but to enhance it – is also discussed.

The private sector in public employment and training programs

Abstract: Assimilating disadvantaged workers in labor markets has been the focus of national policy initiatives for at least two decades. In recent years, public policies have been formulated which will not only provide incentives for the private sector to employ the disadvantaged, but also afford the private sector a larger responsibility in formulating and implementing targeted employment programs. The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and Target Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) are two major examples. This paper initially reviews the public and private employment and training efforts between 1962 and 1982. Considerable attention is given to summarizing and evaluating the performance of these efforts, especially in light of recent program initiatives by the Reagan Administration.